My First Biography

Yesterday I worked constantly all day. Yes, I know that's what I'm paid to do, but my job usually isn't very busy or high stress. Needless to say, I was completely exhausted when I got home. Ariana, my stepdaughter, is staying with us for two weeks, and I worried on my way home how much energy I would have when I arrived. I knew dinner had to be made and I figured I should probably head to the gym too. She'd been having a ball with us, and I was worried I wouldn't have enough energy to properly entertain a 7-year old.

I dragged my feet as I walked in the door and laid across the couch. "I have no energy!" I told my husband. "Poor baby," he said. "You actually had to work hard today." "Shut up," I replied with a grin.

Ariana came running out from her room with a big gift bag filled with tissue paper. She had ripped a page out of a coloring book for me and had colored the teddy bear beautifully. She even added jewelry and a bow so I was sure it was a girl. She had put a pack of my favorite crackers in there and told me they were her favorite too, even though she'd never eaten them before.

Then I saw it: the piece de resistance. She had made me a book! It was entirely her idea, and all Bert had done was staple the folded pieces of construction paper together. The cover was blue and she had drawn a picture of both of us with a big giant heart between us. On the cover it said: How Anisa takes good care of me. At the bottom, she wrote By Ariana.

It took my breath away. She wrote a book about me! I thought I would share the very first biography ever written about me. Odd grammar and funny capitalization has been kept in tact!

Page 1 - Anisa treats me like a mom.
Page 2 - I love Anisa as a mom.
Page 3 - Anisa is a great mom to me and daddy.
Page 4 - I will miss her when she is gone.
Page 5 - Shes the Best mom in the wold.
Page 6 - I love Anisa So much.
Page 7 - Anisa is the Best.
Page 8 - I love Being whith dady and Anisa.
Page 9 - THe end

Tears ran down my face and I gave her a big hug. Rejuvenated with energy, I quickly put supper in the oven and decided we all needed to go get her a new pair of pajamas, as she had been promised the week prior. I left the roasted chicken to bake, and we all left the house feeling as if things just couldn't be better.

She's a child now, and I know the teenage years will be here before we know it and she will grow up. She won't make books for me or color pictures forever. But I will always treasure this summer and I will keep the book she made me. I recognize each day with her as the gift that it is.

I never knew somewhere between baking cookies, reading bedtime stories and watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, such an impression would be made. She is my daughter and I told her so. She has even decided that she's part Indian now too.